Deimos140

I have popped wheelies before but usually for a brief second and then back to driving. This question is more geared towards those of you who car them farther down the track. My main concern is coming down. Thanks to a very wise person letting me know of Ed Quay's site I plan on buying the idler arm, tie rods, and dampener. Anything else to control it from hitting the wall when it comes down?

MrDude_1

i had a friend almost wreck because he bounced from the seat... so while its kinda obvious, a saftey harness thats snug....

thats about all i know about it.. i never had a full on drag car, so ive only gotten the front wheels BEARLY off the ground a couple times...

Dyno Don

iTrader: (7)

The most important thing is to have the air pressure the same in both rear tires. An air bag in the right rear spring will help to keep the rise coming up equal (balance the chassis torque). And don't panic and lift too quick as the front end will experience severe damage (see action photo below in sig.).

10.90streetcar

Heres mine with Nothing but Stock Front End with 6 CYL Springs. Minus the Front Sway Bar.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

If you get scared-short shift it DO NOT LET OFF!!! The stock front end parts are pretty beefy, just make sure they're in good repair, or for no mare than it costs, just replace everything so you know it's new and not abused. For anybody running hooker super comps, when the front end ios fully extended, the a arms hit the headers tubes and dent the heck outta them, I have my A arms trimmed as much as possible, but it's still whacks the snot out of the headers when I play around with the big pills.

Dont go out trying to wheelie right from the get go, do some minor launches so you can see how your car reacts, mainly if it leaves straight or not. Once you get it so it "drives itself" off the line you can work on the show part later. My car when I'm the only person in it will leave straight as a string, put a passenger in and it pulls really bad to the right once the front end comes off the ground. So just be prepared for anything, when it's your car and something happens you dont have to pay to fix damages right away as if it were somebody elses.

It's a very strange feeling the first few times you wheelie, when I was chipped up and had the small rear tires on I would only get about 16" of air when playing, race day it maybe pulls the left front 2-3". My first time I wheelied was in brother in laws regal, for one i was worried about wrecking his car, and having to remember the "new" routine before I staged so the brain was not 100% focused. Standing on the gas, 2 step popping at 5K, let go of the transbrake and boom, nothing but clouds could be seen over the hood. I stayed in it watching the wall out of the pass side window and it just seemed like I was getting to close for my comfort so pulled 2nd, set er down and got out of it, LOL!! It's cool and fun, so long as your not standing her up and then letting the front end just drop outta the sky so get your chasis tune done first. For the record I recorded the slowest pass that car ever made in it's life on that pass!!

I'm sure you already know that you'll go faster keep ing the front end on the ground right??

Deimos140

I am trying everything to make sure that car doesn't get off the ground but in case the wheelie bars and stuff don't perform there intended purpose I don't want tires shaking ona pass. Also have you ever heard about having to run a shorter idler arm with the manual box? You are more than welcome to come down and help set up the rear suspension once I got her back. I am got that 9 inch rearend housing for sale with the cross member kit. If it doesn't sell I will end up using the old plasma cutter and cutting off the old brackets and grinding her down and just mounting the kit that way. i would rather have the chris alston housing that has the four link already built on it. The tubular control arms and K member should make it pretty light for weight transfer and I am looking for dual adjustable coil overs for the rear. Let me know what you think. Tires are gonna be 31 x 10.5 W on 15 x 12. You were right I went and asked Rick head what he thought. he was very helpful. the powerglide should also help to eat torque until the turbo spools.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

The only thing i had to change when I went ot manual steering box was pulling the S-10 pitman arm off the box and install the F-bodies, everything else looked the same, so idler arm should not be a problem??

We used the QA1 DR4855B shocks with 110lb springs on the S-10 and it made all the difference in the world when compared to the stock non adjustible shocks that the back half kit came with. The 14" shocks are what you should need, at least that's what a couple of my buddies with tubbed F-bodies are using for shock length.

Are you narrowing up the rear end? if not why not just use what you have and bank the money for another mod? Fab 9 housings are cool, but not really worth the money. Beside if you install your own brackets then you know for a fact they are exactly where they need to be, unless your using some back half kit from Alston.

Not saying you wont whelie like a beeacth, but I think with the turbo, glide set-up it'll get you up and running without the tendency to throw you over backwards. If you have wheelie bars already, then that's a none issue if you set it up right, I think typically the inital set-up is with the center of the wheelie bar wheels 3 or 4" off the ground.

AlkyIROC

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. You need a lot of torque, traction, and weight transfer before you start pulling the wheels high enough to worry about a hard landing.

Of course if you move the engine back at least a foot, there's a better chance of pulling the wheels with a lot less torque.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Well if his new set-up performs as it should once all the bugs are worked out, he will have to worry about wheelies. If combination is right and tune is worked out it'll easily be a ways into the single digit catagory.

mod313

If you do feel a shimmy shake on the landing get the steering damper kit from Ed Quay Race Cars.

AlkyIROC

Oh that's right. This is for the new turbo motor car.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

mod313, are the stocker guys limited to stock style suspension?

mod313

Yes, only bolt on traction devices are allowed.
The tech dept does allow us to add the Quay damper due to the shimmy shake in spite of the weld on brackets to install it.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

ok, but for rear suspension, you are using aftermarket replacement lca's/panhard/torque arm, right?

AlkyIROC

Any pics of your damper installation?

mod313

South Side Machine lca's, stock torque arm, Pete Z bars, 6 cyl springs, stock sway bar and air bags. Pretty basic and it works well.
Steven,
I don't have pics of the damper. Check this link for the damper kit, also note if you're using a Vega steering box he has the correct idler for it. Click here

muggsyjack

The older dar does nice ones every pass now with 350. Very small with 305.

muggsyjack

Black car (son's) does even better. This is regular launch.

muggsyjack

This is black car (son's) off transbrake.

All photos are coutesy of Bill C. (The Photo B.) official team photographer.

slow86305

sweet pics. What size tires are on the black car?

muggsyjack

The black car has 29.5 X 15 X 10.5W on 10 inch wide rims. Rear has 5.14 gears.

The red car has 28 X 15 X 10.5 on 10 inch rims. Changed to 29.5 X 15 X 10.5 last Saturday. Rear has 4.30 gears.

Deimos140

The backhalf kit is from Chris Alston. It comes with the trick anti roll bar I heard so much about. We will see. I got alot of plasma cutting and tig welder ahead of me. I will try just going with the tie rods and dampener. I don't want to spend all this money and skimp on something that keeps me out of the wall.

Motor City Mike

If you're main concern is the landing after the wheelie, be sure to use 90/10 struts. That have lots of resistance to compression, and will help prevent the car from bottoming out. Good advice from IHI regarding short shifting if you feel the car might be "heading over". As long as you're under power when you're coming down and the wheelie isn't totally outrageous, you shouldn't have a problem (check out the video in my sig). As far as pitman and idler arms go, they should have the same length and drop to be compatible. If your pitman arm is shorter, then the idler should be just as short as well. I have the dreaded "caster shake" after coming down from a wheel stand, but have resisted putting a steering damper on because I feel that it really isn't a concern. My car goes very straight after coming down from a landing. Be sure to adjust the pitman arm height so the centerlink is level in the chassis, and also verify that your bumpsteer is minimal after assembling the front suspension.

Jason Dammen

My car always seems to come down fairly nice as long as I stay in the throttle... What I am usually concerned with is that if one of my rear tires isnt quite in the groove (our track is really hit and miss with good traction) my car will get the front tires about 18" and then will pull to one side or the other. This only happens once in awhile but it forces me to get outta the throttle and then it can come down HARD. I run a 29.5" x 10.5" so a bigger tire may help that issue. What is funny that if my car doesn't do a wheel stand it will typically run about the same et... I believe this is because without the weight on the rear tires it doesn't hook up as well. Anyways, good luck with you car

Later
Jason

muggsyjack

This is from last weekend, as we get dialed in. Lost in sportsmen final.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the boards Jason, nice looking ride and impressive whole shot

Now ya gotta spill the beans about your set-up

Jason Dammen

IHI,
Thanks for the welcome

Nothing too crazy here for suspension really..
Southside Liftbars
QA1 12ways adjustable
No panhard bar (the lift bars dont allow for much sway back there)
Moser 9" standard width, 4.86 gear
413ci dyno'd at 666hp, 549lbft at the flywheel
Dynamic Converter 6100 stall
TH-400 w/hipster brake

I could get into alot more detail but this prolly isnt the post for that
I was gonna ask you where you are from in IA cause I will be moving to the Quad Cities this summer to attend college for the next few years..... Are you around there?

Later
Jason

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I'll shoot ya an email.

Jason Dammen

OK sounds good

1bad406

iTrader: (1)

Here's mine leaving on the transbrake @ 3600. I chained my front end down so that it doesnt try to lift up when it leaves. 6.899 @98 mph. 1.46 60. never lifts the tires up. Stock style susp.

onefast85

had to shrink the pic so it looks a little off.